Trying to make the most out of my situation

[rachel83az]

None of the options mentioned thus far require anything to be done on specific dates. Ironically, CLEP and DSST are actually some of the least flexible in this regard. You must set up a proctoring date ahead of time in order to take these exams. TECEPs are similar but they can be taken "at home" and don't require you to be at a specific test center at a specific time. Study.com, Davar, and Sophia all allow you to complete courses 100% on your own schedule and whenever you have free time.

UMPI classes are 100% self-paced. Finish them on your own timeline. Pay per 2-month term which works out to approximately $700/mo.

TESU, COSC, and EC all have the capstone & cornerstone courses that must be taken and that are not really self-paced at all. With TESU, though, if I am reading the catalog correctly, you wouldn't have to pay additional fees to have a course extension as long as you can show deployment dates: https://tesu.smartcatalogiq.com/en/Curre...Extensions

Again, actual CLEP exams and DSST exams are among the most difficult and least flexible ways to gain credit. Give Sophia a try. With the code Back2School, the first month is 1/2 price at $40.

[dfrecore]

The thing is that my unit that I am stationed at in Fort Stewart tend do go to the field a lot and I don't think that they will allow me some leeway when have to go to the field and I am needing to take a test at a certain time. That is one of the main reasons that i don't want to use any of my GI bill at this point. I just rather take as much CLEP/DSST as I can. I just want to save my benefits for a master's degree program in the future. It's not because I am trying to be frugal in anyway. I just know that there is a big possibility that I will miss out on important dates and tests if I were to use my benefits and go to a school that wasn't accepting as many CLEP exams as I can take. What would be my best option.

Not sure what the rules are for active-duty military in terms of setting up specific dates/times for CLEP and/or DSST exams - as a non-military person, I definitely had to do that.  So this makes it a bit more difficult to do.

Instead, I might look at Sophia, Study.com, Coopersmith (depending on school), etc.

If you don't want to do any RA courses, then EC is your best bet.  If you can take TECEP's or UExcel's (both of which require you to schedule exams), then you can go to any of the Big 3.

[sava60]

have completed and submitted the following Upper Level Courses to Excelsior and this is what they came back evaluated as:
ACQ 160 - Program Protection Planning Awareness (DAU 298) - 2 UL Project Management
CMC 100 - Contract Administration Fundaments (DAU 0288) - 1 UL Contract Management
CON 100 - Shaping Smart Business Arrangements (DAU 0145) 2 UL Public Management
CON 200 - Business Decisions for Contracting (DAU 0252) - 2 UL Material Management
PMT 355 - Program Management Office Course, Part A (DAU 275) - 3 UL Operations Management
RQM 110 - Core Concepts for Requirements Management (DAU 0256) - 1 UL Acquisition Management

The following I submitted but they did not put on my evaluation, it may be that I already have statistics:
CMQ 230 and CMQ 232 - Contrl Graphics and Charting/Creation and Eval of Quality Control - 3 UL Quality Managment or Statistics

DAU has many other LL and UL courses.  I just have not been able to take them as some are a week long.

[dfrecore]

have completed and submitted the following Upper Level Courses to Excelsior and this is what they came back evaluated as:
ACQ 160 - Program Protection Planning Awareness (DAU 298) - 2 UL Project Management
CMC 100 - Contract Administration Fundaments (DAU 0288) - 1 UL Contract Management
CON 100 - Shaping Smart Business Arrangements (DAU 0145) 2 UL Public Management
CON 200 - Business Decisions for Contracting (DAU 0252) - 2 UL Material Management
PMT 355 - Program Management Office Course, Part A (DAU 275) - 3 UL Operations Management
RQM 110 - Core Concepts for Requirements Management (DAU 0256) - 1 UL Acquisition Management

The following I submitted but they did not put on my evaluation, it may be that I already have statistics:
CMQ 230 and CMQ 232 - Contrl Graphics and Charting/Creation and Eval of Quality Control - 3 UL Quality Managment or Statistics

DAU has many other LL and UL courses.  I just have not been able to take them as some are a week long.

Really, the question at this point is - where can you use these credits?  For what degree?  Is this for a business degree? Do these all count as Business Electives?

[bjcheung77]

@OP - Have you started your Sophia.org courses yet? I would focus on getting a plan setup for the degree/school you want to attend. So, if you're going for Excelsior or whatever, get a degree plan setup with courses you are going to take from each provider such as Sophia.org for Lower Level courses and Study.com for Upper Level courses.

Transfer them all in accordingly and finish the required non transferable cornerstone/capstone and whatever else remains. Because of your situation, being "away", it's harder to complete CLEPs/DSSTs, go with Sophia.org/Study.com combo for now, the DAU courses will work as well, but I would do that after you have a degree plan setup...

[Ideas]

Trust rachel83az about Sophia and UMPI.

[bjcheung77]

@OP, I see you haven't logged in for a couple of months. Because you're active duty, you need to decide which option is for you - TESU or UMPI. As I mentioned previously, TESU would be a great choice if you want to do everything self paced, you just need to setup time to do TECEPS (similar to CLEP/DSST). Check the cost dfrecore mentioned, it's less than 3K for the degree taking just 3 months for the capstone/cornerstone!

For UMPI, if you're out and about, you won't have time to get things done in an orderly fashion, that will be the deciding factor, if you can get X courses done in a certain time, then completing 2 terms or 3 would be ideal, however, that will cost more than TESU. So, get a calculator and decide, $1400/term, how many terms it will take you? 2 Terms is 4 months, at $2800, 3 terms is 6 months, at $4200. Don't rush yourself, take courses that will transfer to both and decide soon.